Imagine my excitement when I read about Brunei producing its own rice! Then, imagine my added delight when I saw His Majesty and his family getting down and dirty at the sawah (paddy field)!
Picture taken from Brunei Times
If you haven’t read the news yet, here are the links:
This new project reminded me of what Dr Zul of UBD mentioned once in the recent Brunei Postgraduate Symposium. He said – what if something were to happen in the future that could halt the import of rice? Political issue. Transportation problems. Natural disasters. Anything. What then? So it’s important for Brunei to work towards self-sufficiency to prepare for such future possibilities.
On a different note, I won’t be surprised if the price of Laila rice were to be higher than the imported rice. I think, I actually expect it to happen. They’re new and may not be producing in a large enough scale to allow the cost of production to be spread out. So they won’t be able to sell at low enough prices. Unless, there’s a generous subsidy. If the prices between the imported rice and the locally produced rice do not differ much, I think it shouldn’t be too difficult to encourage Bruneians to purchase the latter. However, if Laila rice doesn’t taste as good as Beras Wangi, then maybe…just maybe..more work would need to be done.
All in all, well done Brunei. You have my support. And I shall invite people around me to join the bandwagon 
Filed under: brunei, Confetti, Read-worthy Tagged: | brunei, economies of scale, price and taste of rice, rice production
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Cali pulang usulnya cos they looked out of place but seemed like tons of fun was had. And brava to Brunei!
It did look fun! My mom told me that there was a live siaran on the whole event! And mom and nini bini got excited becos His Majesty was bare footed. Har har har